China's smartphone juggernaut is using technology from Vidyo to bring multi-point video conferencing to the masses. In the age of the customer, AD&D pros need to take note because mobile is often the driver for business transformation.

Xiaomi (pronounced shaow-me) is a device maker that up until recently has been driving huge sales, growing 227% in 2014. That number drastically shrank in 2015 so it appears that video conferencing is part of a differentiation strategy.

The calling app, Mi Video (seen left) will be pre-installed on the company's new flagship device, the Mi 5, but it's also available for free on iOS and Android devices. The difference with Mi Video is that it lets consumers do multi-point video conferencing. Every other consumer VC service only allows for point-to-point conversations on mobile. For example, with Apple's Facetime you can only videochat with one other person.

For AD&D pros there are a few important points to note:

Forrester research encourages organizations to use tools like video conferencing to enhance day-to-day interactions. There is more value than just cutting travel expenses.

Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola once said: “The very earliest people who made films were magicians.” In some ways, things haven’t changed -- although the media producers of today seem to pull the classic reappearing act as their key trick: When content finishes on one screen, it reappears on another . . . and then another.

Video is available across myriad personal devices, and consumers’ viewing habits are fragmented across technologies. Just as channels for video consumption are becoming more profuse, the types of content that viewers seek are also increasingly diverse. In the past month alone, American audiences said hello to streaming-exclusive dramas and goodbye to long-running TV shows. This week, consumers viewed an array of films like those premiering at SXSW, and tuned into the March Madness sports frenzy.

Consumers have choices about what to watch, on which device, and when. According to Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® data, US online adults still prefer to watch longer-length video on TVs but frequently turn to smaller devices for shorter content:

The Hulu-will-charge-you-money rumor mill is churning once again and the blogosphere has lit up with preemptively angered Hulu viewers vowing that they will never darken Hulu’s digital door again. Some call it greed, others point to nefarious pressure from ailing broadcast and cable operations, while some decry the end of a freewheeling era. They are all wrong.

Hulu charging for content is a good thing. In fact, it’s a necessary next step to get us where we need to be. Let me explain.

This comes at an awkward time, to say the least. The site’s CEO, Jason Kilar, admitted just weeks ago that the free site is profitable, taking in more than $100 million last year and on a run-rate to more than double that this year. Blunting that momentum would be foolish. But letting it run absent the burden of helping to pay for the shows it profits from would also be irresponsible, and not in a Father-knows-best “charging for content builds character” kind of irresponsible, but in a more “not taking advantage of the opportunity to take Hulu to the next level in benefit of the consumer” kind of irresponsible.